White House Denies it Nixed Benghazi Intervention

If it's true, it could cost Obama the election...

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 29: U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement in the White House briefing room following a briefing on Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012 in Washington, DC. Obama returned early from a campaign trip to Florida and has canceled several other campaign events to monitor the storm.
Credit: Getty Images

On Tuesday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's issued some damning remarks in which he claimed that two news outlets might have emails proving the Obama White House was in fact the one that gave the "stand down" orders and chose not intervene when asked for help during the Benghazi siege. Now, the White House is firing back.

“Neither the President nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi during the attack,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told The Hill in an email.

Gingrich told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday that he'd been told by a “fairly reliable” U.S. senator that no less than news outlets have emails “from the national security adviser’s office telling a counterterrorism group to stand down.”

Gingrich did qualify that the information was merely speculative thus far, clarifying, “I want to be clear, it’s a rumor.” If true, however, the Contract With America architect suggested that it certainly could assist Mitt Romney curry favor with voters in Tuesday's upcoming election. Gingrich stated:

“If that’s true, and I’ve been told this by a fairly reliable U.S. senator, if that’s true and that comes out in the next day or two, I think it raises enormous questions about the president’s role, Tom Donilon, the National Security Adviser’s role, the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who has taken it on his own shoulders, that he said don’t go. And I think that’s very dubious, given that the president said he had instructions they are supposed to do everything they could to secure American personnel.”

The former House Speaker added that the topic of Libya will likely resurface in the coming days.

“I think you are going to see this come back tomorrow and the next day,” he said.